Only 1 of 10 SUVs gets 'good' rating in crash test updated to reflect higher speeds

Would your SUV ace a front crash test? Odds aren't great.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Thursday that only one small SUV got a good rating in the agency's newly updated test assessing vehicle-to-vehicle front crashes at high speeds. The updated test also assesses crashes in which a motorcycle or large truck is the vehicle that is struck.

The test was updated because "the vast majority of new vehicles now come with automatic emergency braking, and our research shows the technology prevents as many as half of all front-to-rear crashes," David Harkey, president of the insurance institute said in a statement.

"This new, tougher evaluation targets some of the most dangerous front-to-rear crashes that are still happening," he said.

Here's what you need to know about the new testing and how 10 SUVs performed.

How was the testing conducted?

The insurance institute tested 2023-2024 cars at various speeds up to 43 mph, while previous tests only went as high as 25 mph, the agency said.

“Obviously, crashes that happen at higher speeds are more dangerous,” David Kidd, the agency's senior research scientist, said in a statement. “Deadly underride crashes often occur when the struck vehicle is a large truck, and motorcyclists are frequently killed when they’re rear-ended by a passenger car, since their bike offers no protection from the impact.”

Here are the results of the front crash prevention test:

Hyundai recalls:31,440 Genesis vehicles for fuel pump issue: Here's which cars are affected

Crash test ratings for small SUVs

Good

• Subaru Forester

The Subaru Forester passed all test speeds for the vehicle target and avoided crashes with a motorcycle at 31 and 37 mph, "and slowed by an average of 30 mph before hitting the motorcycle target in the 43 mph tests," the institute said.

"The forward collision warning alerts also came more than the required 2.1 seconds before the projected time of impact in all those trials and also in those conducted with the trailer," the institute said.

Average

• Honda CR-V
• Toyota RAV4

"The acceptable-rated CR-V provided a timely forward collision warning alert and came to a stop or near stop in every trial with the passenger car target and in the 31 and 37 mph trials with the motorcycle target," the insurance institute said. "However, it failed to slow consistently in the 43 mph trials with the motorcycle target."

Moderate

• Ford Escape
• Hyundai Tucson
• Jeep Compass

"The Escape avoided hitting the passenger car and motorcycle targets at the 31 mph test speed and slowed by a modest amount in the higher speed tests, regardless of where the targets were positioned," the insurance institute wrote. "However, it lost several points because its forward collision warning came too late in all of the 31 mph tests."

Poor

• Chevrolet Equinox
• Mazda CX-5
• Mitsubishi Outlander
• Volkswagen Taos

The SUVs that were rated as "poor" failed in a number of areas, the insurance institute wrote.

"For example, the Equinox provided a timely forward collision warning in the tests with the trailer and passenger car target but either failed to give a warning or gave it too late in most tests with the motorcycle target," the agency wrote. "With the passenger car target, it slowed modestly in the 31 mph tests, and with the motorcycle target it barely reduced speed at all."

The takeaways from the new crash testing

The agency said that additional research "showed that today’s systems are less effective at preventing crashes with motorcycles and medium or heavy trucks than they are at preventing crashes with other passenger vehicles."

Being able to assess the SUVs at higher speeds was "vital," Harkey said.

While "real-world data indicate that front crash prevention is eliminating higher-speed crashes, the original test didn’t provide a way to gauge the performance of specific systems at those higher speeds," he said.

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest.